


Runaway

by CrownedinIvy



Category: Miraculous Adventures of Ladybug and Chat Noir, Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Needs a Hug, Bad Parent Gabriel Agreste, Chloe does some serious soul searching, F/M, Gen, Homeless in Paris, Kwami Heroes, Master Fu is not in charge, Plagg is a Little Shit (Miraculous Ladybug), Protective Plagg (Miraculous Ladybug), Runaway Adrien, Seriously we all saw this coming
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-30
Updated: 2020-05-07
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:55:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22036672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrownedinIvy/pseuds/CrownedinIvy
Summary: Adrien Agreste had been planning to run away for a while when he is summarily adopted by the Kwami of Destruction who's no stranger to his kittens coming from bad homes. Hawk moth is darker, Chloe is sharper, and Marinette never meets model Adrien Agreste.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Plagg/Tikki (Miraculous Ladybug)
Comments: 21
Kudos: 200





	1. Lipstick, Plastic, and Paint

Adrien Agreste was running away. He’d made up his mind a month ago that he had to get out of his father’s mansion and had turned to his only friend for help. Chloe had loudly protested, arguing that Adrien could wait until they were 16 and could escape together with their money. Or even until Adrien turned 18 and they could get married and completely wipe their parents out of their lives. But Adrien couldn’t wait, not anymore. 

So they compromised; Chloe pulled all the strings and got Adrien enrolled in school. 

Adrien was just about to taste freedom when he saw an old man fall. Swearing in his head, Adrien turned back and helped the man up. As the man thanked him, Adrien felt something appear in his pocket. One second nothing, then instantly there was something there. Unfortunately, Adrien didn’t have time to contemplate it or even look at it as “Gorilla” was on him and gently pulled him into the backseat of the car. And just like that all Adrien’s hopes of lasting until he turned 16 in his father’s home turned to dust. 

At home he sat through the lecture, only because his father had bothered to come out and lecture him in person. Had Nathalie brought out the tablet, Adrein would have barricaded himself in his room, which was just about the last place he wanted to be and exactly where he ended up anyways. Alone, he pulled out what he saw was an ornate hexagonal box.

Adrien opened the box and greenish yellow ball of light exploded into his room. Adrien threw up his hands, covering his face and closed his eyes. After a moment he heard a yawn and then looked and saw an adorable floating creature where the light had been. 

“Woah, like the genie in the lamp,” Adrien exclaimed excited and desperately hoping his guess was right. Three wishes were exactly what he needed right now. 

“Eh, met him once, wasn’t impressed. So he grants wishes, big deal. Got anything to eat around here?”

And with that the little black creature sped off to explore Adrien’s room. After a few minutes of chasing the creature, Adrien finally got it to introduce itself. Plagg, the creature called itself, was a kwami and apparently that meant that he granted superpowers to the person who wore his ring and said the magic phrase. 

“So you’re basically you’re the lantern to my Green lantern?” Adrien asked. 

“Chaos grant me patience! Yes, although the nerdiness of the statement is excessive. Also you have to feed me, and since I can see you’re a rich kids, Camenbert or nothing!” Plagg demanded. 

“So can you help me get out of here?” Adrien asked and Plagg who up until that question had still been very blase jerked in midair and flew right up to Adrien’s face.

“Tell me why you want to leave.” He demanded, his suddenly had a very dark edge to it. Adrien gulped then told Plagg everything. His mother’s disappearance, his father’s neglect, the insane work schedule and pressure Adrien faced as the the face of his father’s youth line, and the disturbing “fan-mail” Adrien got. Plagg was silent for a full minute and when he finally spoke he sounded so tired. 

“Okay, so we’re running away, but we’re doing this my way, kit. Grab a bag, here’s what you need.”

So Adrien packed the back pack he’d bought for school with everything Plagg demanded. Two changes of clothes, one for cold weather, one for warm; basic toiletries, a blanket, all the cash Adrien had, and lastly the photograph of his mother, sans frame. Adrien also brought his debit card and planned to withdraw the maximum amount of cash available then giving the card to someone on the street. He also quickly wrote a letter, a paper letter, which he had to look up how to address to Chloe. And with that he said the magic words for the first time. 

“Plagg, claws out.”


	2. A Touch of Sable in Their Eyes

Adrien hadn’t hesitated to use cataclysm. Plagg nearly had a heart attack; Tikki would have guessed that, but Plagg was more than happy to tell her. 

“Day 1, Tikki, day 1 and the kid nearly kills himself! He has no idea what could’ve happened!” Plagg raged in mind speak. Tikki sighed. 

“Well maybe if you told him ahead of time, and actually communicated with your holder, this kind of thing wouldn’t happen. Where are you anyway? It’s late and your holder didn’t seem to be any older than mine,” Tikki remonstrated her compliment. 

“We’re in the park across the street from a bakery. Baker threw out some two day old bread that got missed the day before, so the kid ate dinner at least. And it’s not like you know anything about trying to talk to a teenage boy you just gave superpowers,” Plagg accused, which Tikki had to admit was a point to him. There weren’t as many male creation miraculous holders, and none of them had been teenagers. Plagg always did have rotten luck, that was actually why so many cultures deemed black cats bad luck. Then something stuck out to Tikki.

“What do you mean the kid got dinner? Oh Plagg, I’m so sorry. How bad?” Tikki asked already concerned for Plagg’s newest kitten. 

“Not too bad yet, he’s got some money, but we have to make it last. Winter’s not too close so hopefully he'll be able to find some place to stay instead sleeping rough,”Plagg answered. “This is new for him, so it could be worse. It will be worse, but for now we’re okay. At some point though, we’re gonna need your help, Sugarcube.”

Tikki agreed and wished Plagg a good night. Then she turned to look at her sleeping holder. Marinette was so sweet and innocent; Tikki hated Hawkmoth and whoever had sent Chat Noir out into the streets for ruining the world for her. 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“We have to know who Ladybug!” Alya had been excitedly explaining to Marinette and the other girls her plan to unmask Ladybug, when Marinette asked why her friend wanted to know. 

“Heroes deserved to be thanked, especially since we don’t know how long she’s been fighting Hawkmoth. And besides, we can’t help her if we don’t know who she is!” Alya said with such passion that Marinette felt so grateful for her new best friend, but also just a little bit like a liar. Tikki said it was important that nobody knew who she was and given that Hawkmoth had at least some mind reading powers it really was important that no one know her identity. But Alya was such a great person, so there's no way she’d be akumatized. 

“Actually, as crazy as it sounds, I think Chloe might be Ladybug,” Alya said. And Marinette was instantly offended. 

“Um, Alya?” Mylene asked. “I know you don’t Chloe very well, but she’s not exactly a nice person. I don’t think she’d be a good superhero.”

“But she has been acting really off lately,” Sabrina who’d joined them for some reason beyond Marinette. “She won’t let me come over any more and she keeps sneaking off during the day.”

“There’s only one way to find out for sure,” Alya said and launched into her plan to break into Chloe’s locker. Marinette had a bad feeling about this. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ladybug swang through the streets of Paris toward La Grand Paris, where Chat Noir had been spotted across the street staring at the hotel. Landing on the roof she saw him, crouched at the edge of roof intensely staring at something in the hotel across the street. 

“It can’t be her, Mon Dieu. It can’t be her,” Chat Noir muttered to himself. 

“Can’t be who, kitty?” Ladybug asked. Chat Noir spun around so fast that he stumbled and nearly lost his footing. Ladybug grabbed his wrists and pulled him away from the edge, before looking past him to see what had had his attention.

There in the hotel room across the street was Chloe Bourgeois dressed in a bright red and polka-dot top staring at a huge map of the city.

“You didn’t that that Chloe Bourgeois could be me, did you?” Ladybug asked with a huff at the end of the question. “Seriously why do people keep thinking that?

“I didn’t, but I couldn’t help but notice the similarities my Lady,” Chat Noir said with just a hint of a smirk. “You’re both strong, confident, young women. Though, I hope she wasn’t you. That would have been all kinds of awkward.”

That… that was not what Ladybug had been expecting to hear. Because Chat Noir said awkward, not awful almost as if he and Chloe had some kind of relationship outside of the hero business. And he actually cared about her, which Ladybug figured was possible, but decidedly not like Chlo. 

“So you know the mayor’s daughter?” She tried to sound casual, then realized this could possibly reveal Chat Noir’s identity. Before she could recant the question, Chat answered. 

“Yeah, we’re friends, but we had a, uh, falling out of sorts and we’re not speaking right now,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. “Also it would be super weird to have a crush on someone I literally grew up with.”

“What?” Ladybug startled. 

“What,” Chat said back, then immediately tensed. “Akuma!”

And with that Chat Noir launched himself off the building and went crashing through the window of Chloe’s room. Ladybug followed suit and faced off with none other than an akumatized Alya Cesaire.

“Well, I guess that clears Chloe of being Ladybug, but let’s see who’s behind the mask,” Akuma Alya said. 

“Adi?” Chloe asked and Chat Noir tensed and turned away from Akuma Alya and she pounced the battle was on. 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Marinette was rushing to school, running late, but not as late as usual. Tikki and her had put together a “sorry you got akumatized because I’m keeping a secret from you” gift basket this morning. Marinette was still unsettled by her best friend being Akumatized, but Tikki said it wasn’t anything against Alya. Nooroo, the Kwami who powered Hawkmoth was meant to seek out people who stood against injustice. Alya had been the victim of injustice at Chloe’s hands and Hawkmoth took advantage of that. 

“Marinette, your too sweet,” Alya said as she bit into the pastry. “But I’m really fine, I don’t remember much about being Lady Wifi. It’s kind of a blur, like having a dream.”

“Césaire!” Chloe shouted as she marched over with a fire in her eyes that meant trouble. “I want to fund your blog.”

“What?” Marinette and Alya asked simultaneously, shocked that Chloe would do such a 180. Then Marinette looked at Chloe and realized she wasn’t wearing her typical yellow and white ensemble. Instead she had a green camisole peeking out over a black off the shoulder shirt with a green paw print pin above her heart. 

“You heard me; I want to fund your blog,” Chloe said impatiently ignoring the stares of their classmates. “New phone, camera, web server, whatever you need--send me a bill. But I want the blog to be equally split between Ladybug and Chat Noir. Every Ladybug article has a corresponding article about Chat Noir.”

“Why?” Marinette asked. At the same moment Alya said “Hell eah!”

“Because they’re partners, Dupain-Chang. She’s the brain, he’s the heart and together they just saved my life.”

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Adrien was having the time of his life. He was at a concert in the park listening to a young DJ blasting tunes. It wasn’t a formal concert, more of a word of mouth pop up show, where several buskers and a few aspiring DJ’s were playing for practice and to show off. It was fantastic.

The last three weeks had been interesting to say the least. He had Plagg had been on the lookout for any sign that Gabriel was looking for his son, but so far there hadn’t been any. Adrien had used his debit card to withdraw roughly two thousand euros, the maximum he could in a day and promptly gave the card to a busker on the metro in exchange for his clothes and 2 piece coin. After that Adrien worked on making his money stretch as far as possible. 

Food had been difficult to manage for Adrien, who had begun to rely on Plagg to tell him when to eat. Growing in the manner, Adrien never went hungry, but he also wasn’t allowed to eat anything that wasn’t prepared for a specific pre-order meal. Weirdly enough, Adrien noted that he gained a little weight in those first two weeks, when he’d tried one of the silly public scales that insults you. It had also called him a skinny soy latte, which Adrien had no idea what that meant. 

But now, he and Plagg had settled into a routine. Adrien would buy food for the week and keep in his backpack, except Plagg’s cheese. That he bought a total of three times so far and had been spaced out to basically right before or after he transformed. Both if he used cataclysm. But he transformed every other day and patrolled. 

Patrol was about a couple of different things; one was practice. Adrien had tripped over himself and wasn’t at all familiar with bo staff fighting and Plagg said he’d get used to it over time. The other was simply to reduce injustice. Nooroo needed people to be angry about injustice in order to akumatized them, so Chat Noir started to be more proactive. And there was a lot of injustice in Paris.

From the other homeless drifters, Adrien was learning a lot about the world and it turned his stomach. While Paris was pretty accepting of Africans, Roma and a few other Eastern European minorities faced persecution at every turn. More than a few of the homeless people Adrien had met were clearly mentally ill and needed medical care. Adrien had been instructed by an older gentleman who was missing half his nose, that if he was Jewish or Muslim, he’d better learn to fake secularism quickly. 

Really it was upsetting beyond anything Adrien had ever really experienced before. His mother had died, but that was his problem. This was so much bigger and harder to deal with than his mother’s passing because time wasn’t going to make the pain lessen and there were no happy memories of a better time. 

“This is the police!” The sound of a bull horn pulled Adrien out of his introspective revery. He looked into his jacket pocket to see Plagg waking up. 

“This can’t end well,” Plagg grumbled. “Better get ready kit.”

Adrien started to run as the area was suddenly flooded with with sirens, flashing lights and scrambling people fleeing the scene. Adrien fell in step with one of the DJ’s who’d done a spectacular bit with the lighting and bubbles. They bolted down and alley and hid behind the dumpster. 

“I can’t believe adults are like this!” the DJ slammed his fist into the dumpster as he spoke. 

“Not so loud,!” Adrien hissed, glancing around the dumpster to see if anyone was coming after them. “Yeah it sucks but-”

“Yes, Hawkmoth,” said the DJ as Adrien watched him morph into an akuma.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who thought I'd abandoned this story? hehehe
> 
> General story stuff-- this story will be updated Monday/Tuesdays and currently looks like its going to be 20 chapters. Sneak peeks for the next chapter, outtakes, and other extras will be on my ko-fi stream: https://ko-fi.com/ivycrown
> 
> I hope you check it out, but don't feel obligated to buy me a coffee. 
> 
> Anti-Semetic and Islamaphobic violence in France has been on the rise since 2014 and is causing an increase in emigration. Violence against "Gypsy" (this is a racial slur used to refer to Roma and Sinti) peoples has long been an issue in France and continues today. Adrien is starting to witness this first hand as a homeless teen, but unlike other homeless teens has the power to actually do something when faced with it. It won't solve the issues, but it will certainly catch the Parsian government's and Hawkmoth's attention.


	3. All Your Life, All You’ve Asked

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which I finally get my act together and post a new chapter.
> 
> Adrien.exe has stopped working

Gabriel Agreste had just fired half his staff; he’d have fired his entire staff, if Nathalie hadn’t reminded him that his criminal dealings would most definitely be exposed if he fired her or made her hire an entire new staff. But they’d lost his son and they deserved to pay.

Gabriel hadn’t realized that his son was missing for 3 days. He and Nathalie had agreed to give him three days off of school to reflect on why he should appreciate the homeschooling he had. In that time, the only staff who would have interacted with his son said nothing. Then he’d been further delayed in finding his son, by tracking Adrien’s debit card. The card had been found in possession of a young woman in Russia, when she used it to buy a coffee. Apparently she’d gotten it as payment for watching a man’s children in Poland, and Lord knows how many hands had passed the card before then. 

Now, Gabriel had hired a team to find Adrien and the would be scourging every inch of the globe Adrien could have run towards or been taken to. He’d been half way through dialling the police, when Nathalie had pointed out the potential flaw with that. Gabriel could not have law enforcement searching his home and risk them finding Emile in the basement. No the private team would be enough to find his son, after all it wasn’t there was nothing Miraculous about this disappearance. 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chloe Bourgeois was just about ready to explode, because apparently Kim couldn’t take a hint to save his life. He’d asked her out almost every day for the last three weeks. Chloe had spent hours online researching how to get a guy to leave you alone and nothing seemed to work. She didn’t use her usual creep method, because Kim wasn’t really a creep and Chat Noir had explained what caused Akumas and Chloe didn’t want to be responsible for a supervillain. 

In between lessons with Emile, she and Adrien had studied superheroes for fun. Adrien preferred the Japanese art style, but Chloe had fallen in love with the heroes of DC comics. Huntress, Batman, and Oliver Queen were by far her favorites; people who used their wealth to become crime fighters and in the case of two of the heroes had abominable parents. So no Chloe didn’t want to be an accomplice to a supervillain, but it looked like she was going to.

“No means no, you weirdo!” Chloe shouted at the boy from her class. She made a mental note to talk to Alya about maybe putting in an early warning for potential akuma’s on the Ladyblog and possibly talking to Max about an app. “No, I do not want to go out with you! No, I don’t want to be your girlfriend! No, I don’t like you! Now leave me alone!”

With that Chloe grabbed Sabrina’s arm and spun around and began to run away.Sabrina yelped, but Chloe didn’t stop. She wasn’t going to let anything happen to the only friend she could still talk to. Chloe wasn’t sure what happened to Adrien in order for him to become Chat Noir, but clearly it had kept him away from normal people except when he was needed to fight akumas. At least that’s what Chloe had hypothesized. 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Adrien was having a day, a really bad day. He’d been caught by the police hanging out in one of the tent camps with Violca and Simcha. He’d been caught because Violca and Simcha needed to get away more than he did and if the police caught him they wouldn’t chase the others. Adrien made a mental note to find out how to dye his hair; being blonde in the camps and slums was just asking for the police to question which “gypsy” had kidnapped you.

Now he was sitting in the back of a police car and had been waiting for an opportunity to duck out of the car. Except that the Akuma alert came over the police radio, so Adrien made a decision that he was certain Plagg would approve of. 

“Plagg, get ready,” Adrien whispered, then louder he said “Gentlemen,, I’m going to need you to let me out of the car. Plagg, Transform me!”

Adrien couldn’t help but grin as the two police officers jumped out of the car as the magic ran over his skin and through his veins. It sang and warmed his whole being and made him feel more alive than ever before. But something was new this time, he heard a voice.

“That wasn’t the smartest call, Kit, but daaanng, if it wasn’t exactly what I would do,” Plagg said and Adrien felt his grin widen, showing his newly grown fangs. He launched himself straight out of the police car onto a nearby roof and scrambled to the location of the last akuma sighting. 

It was an interesting akuma, calling himself Dark Cupid, and shooting black roses at people. Ladybug was already engaged in the fight, but she seemed to be mostly dodging the roses. Right up until she got attacked by the some of the by-standers with black lips.

“Ladybug, Lookout!” Chat Noir slammed into her back and took the hit. And suddenly everything was dark. 

Chat Noir hated Ladybug, he hated Plagg, he hated Adrien, he hated everything. Except he didn’t. Adrien felt the hatred coursing through his body and it was wrong. It wasn’t what he felt, it wasn’t real and it was all at the same time. Adrien wanted to be sick.

He fought for control. He couldn’t manage much, but he didn’t hit Ladybug with the Cataclysm. Adrien was already anticipating the nightmares from the close call. And then she pinned him and suddenly Adrien was very uncomfortable. He never knew his grandmother, but started reciting a litany willing away his new problem since Ladybug was safe. Then she kissed him. 

Adrien.exe has stopped working.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long delay: first writer's block, finishing school, and starting up at the hospital full was the issue.   
> Now its the freaking Pandemic. Updates will be inconsistent unless I get furloughed.
> 
> Kim isn't a bad guy or a creep. Kim, however, has been told all his life to keep trying and eventually he'll get what he wants. Unfortunately for him, Chloe will not be changing her mind. Thankfully he'll learn. 
> 
> Next chapter: Ladybug flies solo, Chat Noir starts getting some serious press coverage, and The Guardian makes his first appearance


End file.
